A Huntington Beach snowboarder killed in a “freak” accident near Telluride, Colo., Saturday had proposed to her long-time boyfriend the day before.

Carlo Nafarrete waved off the proposal from MaryScott King because he had his own plans to pop the question the following day.

“She was a go-getter in life and she did propose,” Nafarrete, 44, of Cypress recalled today. “I did put her off jokingly as a man should propose, not the other way around.”

Nafarrete had taken King, 50,a human resources specialist at Boeing and extreme sports enthusiast, to Colorado for her Christmas present and they had spent the week snowboarding.

On Saturday the couple went snowboarding in the Mineral Creek Basin near Telluride. The remoteness of the area requires that snowboarders are delivered by helicopter, not a lift.

King was working her way down a steep slope, near a 2-foot-wide creek, when she fell backwards into the water headfirst, getting her helmet stuck between the creek bed and the edge of a rock worn away by the water, officials said.

Helitrax Guide Hilaree O'Neill was skiing right behind her, and tried to take off King's helmet, but her hands went numb in the frigid water, she told the Telluride Daily Planet.

Only King's head was trapped underwater in the shallow creek. Her snowboard and legs lay on the bank. The creek was 12 to 16 inches deep, Helitrax officials said. It took "considerable" force to pull her free, Helitrax director Aaron Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez, who was downhill with a second group, was helicoptered up to the accident to help. The rescuers tried to dam the water from running over King's face, but by the time she was pulled from the water, 10 minutes had passed. King had no pulse and was not breathing; she was pronounced dead at the scene about noon.

San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters called the death “one of those freak things.” Coroner officials said she died of drowning.

King was a former competitive speed skater and had done river rafting, cliff diving, rock climbing, and backpacking, said Helen Roe, her best friend. She also mentored Ocean View High School students for more than a decade.

“She was fearless. She was my adventurer-pal,” Roe said. “Till the day she died she was just amazing, healthy, and athletic.”

Roe said she and King had talked about dying while doing an extreme sport.

“We have always said that to each other in all of our escapades together that were rather dangerous…if I die doing this it is okay because I was having a really good time,” said Roe.

Nafarrete is still in Colorado and has refused to come home without King, Roe said.

Carlo Nafarrete and MaryScott King snowboarding in 2005.
Mary Scott King smiles as she prepares to be delivered by a helicopter to a remote snowboarding area in Colorado. This photo was taken hours before her helmet became trapped by rocks in a stream and she drowned.
MaryScott King with her sisters in 2008.
Mary Scott King, left, with her best friend Helen Roe in July 2008 at Roe's daughter's wedding. PHOTO COURTESY OF RICHARD ROE
MaryScott King prepares to be delivered by a helicopter to a remote snowboarding area in Colorado. This photo was taken only hours before her helmet became trapped by rocks in a stream and she drowned.
MaryScott King with her sisters Helen Lisle, Kase and Margaret.
Carlo Nafarrete and MaryScott King at Disneyland in 2008.
MaryScott King during a Thanksgiving weekend trip to the Grand Canyon in 2009.
MaryScott King competing in Buffalo, New York in 1994.
MaryScott King with her mother, Mary Lisle at Disneyland.
Telluride, Colo., is known for its ski resort, pictured here in a 2006 file photo. A Huntington Beach woman died Saturday after she fell while crossing a creek in the back country outside the southwestern Colorado town. NATHAN BILOW, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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